A great fit!

I haven't told anyone my size until now because I am embarrassed by it. I am sure that you can estimate. Officially it is 22/24--I need a larger size in the top and in some styles of pants. In shirts, I wear mostly 2x. That is so disgusting to me. My goal was to be at a size 20 before Christmas. This morning I put on a pair of tan docker type pants that had been a bit loose on me for a couple of weeks. Well today they looked like a potato sack. I had to pick the waist up all day. They are going to be washed and put in the donation pile. I am making a pile in my closet so that I can motivate myself not to fit in those clothes again. I tried on a pair of blue pants that had been tight for about a year now. They fit perfectly. So it seems that I have officially dropped at least one size--in any style. As soon as I drop one more size, I will have a few more outfits to try on. I really haven't been able to wear a size 20 in about 2 years. I am going to have to buy a new pair of black and tan pants really soon because otherwise I won't have enough work clothes.

I know it is early in the day, but I am posting now because I have dinner planned and a few minutes to myself to blog. For breakfast I had apple-cinnamon oatmeal and peanut butter crackers for a total of 360. I know that is a weird combo, but I felt the need for the peanut butter. For lunch, I made a BLT on wheat bread with a bit of mayo(448). I also had a pickle(24) and a banana(90). Now that I write it down it occurs to me that I ate a weird combination for lunch. For snack I had an apple(100) and popcorn(60). For dinner I will be eating an egg roll, chicken, broccoli, rice and a bit of sauce(for a total of 656). The broccoli will be steamed and the chicken roasted. I did get to exercise today for 35 minutes and I was able to walk faster today. I have a total of 1738 calories used. I have 162 calories left and I am not sure if I am going to have a snack later or not, but if I do, it will surely be under the 162 calories left.

Tomorrow is a 1600 day and I already have breakfast and lunch at a low amount. We will be having meatballs and spaghetti tomorrow for dinner so I have to save a bit for that.

Another busy day

I feel like I ate everything today, but I didn't really. I did get to exercise but not until about 5pm due to issues with my kids. I much prefer to exercise in the morning, but I will take it when I can get it. I walked faster for longer today and it felt great!! My kids and I exercised together. They have a mini trampoline so I had them use it for 5 minutes at a time. And when they weren't on that, they took turns on the elliptical---they wanted to do that. It is cute when they do it. They aren't getting any cardio from it, but at least they are trying new things.

My total allowed calories for today was 1600. I had regular oatmeal at breakfast(140). For lunch I had 6 mini veggie and chicken egg rolls(225) and some pasta salad(300--I think that is a high estimate, but since it is home made I always guess a bit high). I had a snack today of low fat tortilla chips with mustard(250). For dinner I had a turkey croquette(300), mac and cheese(200) and sauteed squash(30). For dessert I had a bunch of grapes(40). I am stuffed right now. It feels like I ate so much at dinner, but I really don't think I did. I am going to try to eat the majority of my calories on my next low cal day before dinner. I think that might be better for the metabolism. Either way, I stayed within the limits and I am happy about that.

A change in the plan

So today was my weigh in and I didn't lose any weight. I am a bit disappointed considering all of the hard work I did this week, but at the same time, I know that my clothes are fitting much better. So maybe it isn't always about the numbers but more about the size....I have heard that from Sassy before and I am really a believer now. Not to say that I am happy with my current size, but I can definitely see physical changes without numbers dropping.

I thought about my plan for the week and have decided to change it a bit to try to achieve maximum results. I have stuck with 1600 cals for today, but have changed the other days to try to shock my body a bit. Here is the new agenda:

Monday 1600 exercise
Tuesday 1850 exercise
Wednesday 1625
Thursday 1900 exercise
Friday 1700 exercise
Saturday 2700 exercise?
Sunday 1700 exercise

This gives me a total of 13150, which is way below my allowed total of 13776. I am worried that I am not intaking enough calories, but I am going to leave room for error. So if I go over one day by 25 I won't feel as bad. I am still going to try to eat breakfast and lunch, a snack in between lunch and dinner maybe a snack after dinner. I am going to do my best this week to keep the sodium intake low because I know that I will be unable to control that when I am away in 2 weeks. I figure if I am really good with it while I am home then it will be easier to keep off the water weight now and just shed it when I get back.

I have also decided to aim for 6 days of exercise. I am going to be really busy on Saturday from about 7:30 am so I may not be able to do that, but that still leaves me with 5 days of exercise. Last week I think I did 5 and it felt good so I would like to continue that and add about 5 minutes to my work out each day. That is all based on the foot pain and can only be judged day by day.

Okay, now that I feel better about this week's plan, it is off to do some chores and play with the kids before school. Enjoy the day!

Today flew by!

I started my day with exercise....today it was mowing the lawn. I like to mow because I feel accomplished and I know I am exercising. Today I walked faster than usual and actually got done in about an hour. So now the lawn looks good and I was able to exercise also.

Today I was allowed 1800 cals and I didn't eat that much. I had a glass of OJ and a couple of bites of my daughter's french toast for breakfast(total 200). For lunch I had an individual frozen pepperoni pizza(410). I like making a frozen meal every now and then. They are higher in sodium than fresh food so we try to stay away from them here for the daily lunches. While I was cooking all day I got hungry so I had some tortilla chips and cheddar cheese(300), not a lot, but enough to keep me satisfied. For dinner, it was leftover night because Steve is at the football game. I had a piece of the chicken I made earlier in the week with 2 small stuffed cubanelle peppers(rice and Parmesan cheese) for a total of 600. I think that may be a bit high because it was a small piece of chicken, but I always estimate high to be safe.

Since it is the weekend, the kids got to have a special dessert. I decided to have an ice cream sandwich along with them(150). It really cured my sweet tooth. I am still a bit hungry so I may have a piece of fruit later for 40 calories. Even if I do, that still leaves me with only 1650 cals eaten today. That is good to know because I am allotting a 1600 day tomorrow and I wasn't sure if I could do it. I know I can now because it is only 50 less than today. I think I may make some jello tomorrow for snacking this week since it is only 10 calories if I make the sugar free kind. What I might do is mix a box of sugar free with a box of regular so that I can reduce the calories but not eat as much artificial sweetener. We will see how tomorrow goes though. I was supposed to make 4 recipes today and I only made 2. I made 3 meals worth of turkey croquettes and that was a ton of work. I left one package out for this week and froze 2 other packages for future meals. I blanched and froze some squash and prepped some of the items for the meatballs I want to make tomorrow. I also want to make home made chicken nuggets since they are probably healthier and cheaper. If the kids like them I will make them more often.

So the day really went by quickly with all of the cooking, cleaning, and playing with the kids. I sat down with the kids before I started cooking and we painted our pumpkins. That was really fun!! And in between various kitchen tasks I managed to get a load of laundry done. I am tired and my feet are tired from standing all day. I think I will sleep well tonight!

Here's to a good week for everyone!

This week's goals....

So I have decided to reduce my caloric intake this week to see if I can do it. I am allowed a total of 13776 calories. For extreme weight loss I am supposed to eat no more than 1968 calories a day--that is with exercise 3 times a week and I hope to exercise more than that with at least 4 times, maybe 5 depending on the foot. I saw that it is supposed to rain again this week a few days so I am just going to try to work through the pain and see what happens.

Monday: 1600
Tuesday: 1725
Wednesday: 1825
Thursday: 1700
Friday: 1600
Saturday: 2700
Sunday: 1700

I know that I have not kept the calories as low as this week, but I really think I would see more results if I did that. I am also going to try to eat a snack only between lunch and dinner---not after breakfast. I will try to drink a cup of tea(decaf) instead. I enjoy tea and it is filling. The only problem with that is it is more liquid and I already go to the bathroom enough. We'll see.

I am also going to try on some winter clothes this week. I want to try to see what I need for the winter. I probably won't need anything because I have clothes that didn't fit last year. It will be fun to try clothes on that might fit better now though.

Stress free Saturday

Today was a very relaxing day. I had to bring Adam to karate this morning, so I didn't get to exercise until late morning. I enjoyed my 30 minute walk. I am seriously going to look into getting a stationary bicycle though because I was told that would be less stress on my foot injury. I am going to research various bikes and them make a decision. I think they are reasonably priced.

Since I had allowed for 2500 cals today I splurged a bit. I had oatmeal for my early breakfast(150) and half a brownie(75) around 10:30. For lunch I had fries with a bit of ketchup and a grilled chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato and mayo(990). For dinner, I went out with Becky and had a side salad with garlic chicken primavera. The menu at TGIF's said that this recipe was about 500 calories. I can't see how it was, so I am estimating that it was about 650.(I entered the various ingredients separately and estimated how much they gave me of each. I can't imagine that they would lie 150 calories worth, but I want to overestimate so I don't over eat.) The salad was about 185 with the dressing. After dinner, Becky and I sent shopping to get paints for pumpkins and she got to choose a dessert. We try not to let the kids have dessert right after dinner because we find that they will ask for food again later. So it was about 30 minutes later and she decided she wanted gummy worms. Since it was a splurge day for me, I ate them with her. They counted for 240 of my day.

So overall I consumed 2290 calories today. I was allowed 2500 so that was a great amount. I have reduced my allowed amount for tomorrow to 1800 instead of 1850 because I think I ate a lot today. I have a lot of cooking to do tomorrow for the week so I think I will be rather distracted. I usually drink a lot of water when I cook because of the heat of the oven. So tomorrow should be nice weather and not too hot.

I am also going to weigh in tomorrow and see how the scale treats me. I still feel slightly bloated from salt intake this week, but we will see how it goes after I exercise.

Frantic Friday

So instead of exercising in the morning, I didn't get to exercise until about 1PM. I walked even though the rain affected my foot. I just knew that I wanted to walk and pushed through the pain. I didn't get a chance to eat breakfast so I just had a glass of OJ(100). I had anti pasta salad and chips for lunch(700). For dinner I had ham, stuffing and some more pasta salad(800).

It didn't seem like I would stay under my allotted amount, but I did. I drank 9 glasses of water today and I will probably drink a couple more before the night is over. I seem pretty full right now, but if I do eat something it will probably be a cup of hot chocolate made with boiling water--only 80 cals.

I didn't eat a fruit of veggie today so I will have to do better with that tomorrow. But that is a good part of this program, I stayed under my calories for the day even though it was not particularly healthy.